NCAA Div. I: Indiana Sweeps Evansville

BLOOMINGTON, IN., October 19 – The Looze era has begun.

New Indiana University men's swim coach Ray Looze saw his Hoosiers emerge victorious in his first meet at the IU helm here today as his charges and those of Dorsey Tierney — Indiana women's coach — swept Evansville for the third-straight year at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.

The Hoosiers were victorious on the women's side by a 185.5-103.5 margin while Looze's men won handily too, 135-106. Indiana won all but the women's 400 IM — where EU Purple Ace Jamie Davidson touched first in 4:39.81 — and both the women's and men's 200 free relays..

"We didn't dive as well as we are capable of, but that is pretty standard for the beginning of the season," IU diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber said. "I think that we are going to have a good year. Marc Carlton did some good stuff for us today and I think that he has a good shot at breaking two school records this year. All in all we dove well."

Senior Sara Hildebrand broke her own school record in the 1 meter event finishing with a score of 323.48. On the men's side, Carlton took two first place finishes in the 1 and 3 meter events, scoring 310.28 and 335.20
respectively.

Hoosier David Schulze splashed to three individual victories and contributed to the 200 medley relay team's win too. Schulze posted a 57.19 in the 100
yard breaststroke, 2:04.04 in the 200 and 4:04.50 in the 400 yard IM. Indiana took the top four spots in this race.

"I am pleased with the way I competed today because we have been training very hard," Schulze said. "We have been doing very hard workouts lately. The fact that we were able to race hard and put good times up and put some really good races together is a good sign for the future."

Schulze is Indiana's 100-200 breast record-holder with his 54.66/1:58.15 clockings at last season's Big 10 Championships here in his home pool.

Also placing first in four events was junior Meghan Medendorp. Her 24.17 was good enough to place first in the 50 freestyle; then she added wins in the 100 free (51.54) and anchored the winning 200 medley and runner-up freestyle relay as well.

"This was our first meet of the season so we are working a lot on race strategy," Medendorp said. "We wanted to get in there and concentrate on what we had to do to be successful."

Junior Brook Tafflinger won the 200 free event in a nice early-season 1:52.80, grabbed a gold in the 200 yard breaststroke (2:20.04) and was second in the 500 freestyle behind teammate Sarah Fiden — who won in at
4:56.74.

"I am very happy with my swims today," Tafflinger said. "I usually don't have a great beginning of the season, so I feel that pulling this off shows the team what I can do."

Murph Halasz swept the men's butterfly events, posting a time of 1:51.20 in the 200 and 50.20 in the 100. Halasz was also a member of the 200 medley team that placed first with a 1:32.42. Other members of the 200 medley were Matt Leach, Schulze, and Dale Ramsey. Leach swept the 100 and 200 yard backstroke competitions, posting times of 51.83 and 1:51.76. Dale won the 100 free and the 50 free.

Women's coach Tierney said she was pleased with the way her team competed.

"I saw a couple of things, first several people working very hard," Tierney noted. "I saw a lot of tired legs today too. I think that for the most part
we were pretty good, but not very consistent in all of our events. Most people had one or two really good events and then kind of fell off on their third. Part of that is because it is early in the season and also because we have been training hard. We need to work on the ability to stay focused throughout the duration of the whole meet."

The men's swimming and diving team return home on Friday, Oct. 25 to host Michigan State, and the women travel to Notre Dame on Nov. 1. Both meet times are set for 5:00 p.m.